The Figure
by jjc2k10
Summary: About a mysterious stalker Ash has had throughout his life, but not being aware of it, chapter 2 up, please leave feedback and ideas, everyone needs help!
1. Chapter 1

**The Figure**

**Chapter 1**

The day was young and the sun shone bright. Ash awoke on the floor of his hotel room, having fallen out of bed again, as usual. Somehow, his sheets managed to stay on the bed, so he was lying there in just his boxers, surprised that he didn't catch a cold. Stretching, Ash dragged himself up, grabbed his shower bag and headed towards to bathroom down the corridor. Still groggy, Ash bumped into a boy of the same age, "urgh," Ash forced as a type of apology. "Where I come from, people say sorry," the boy snorted, but Ash just completely ignored him.

Brock and Misty waited for Ash, "we've been waiting for Ash for about an hour now, I just want my breakfast." Misty groaned, Brock giving a look back showing he agreed. "This is the first time we've been in a hotel and he's already ruining it." Ash, back in his room, had dozed off again, half dressed. Pikachu poking at his face, impatiently trying to wake him, but the little Pokémon already knew there was only one thing to wake him, so Pikachu let out a small electric shock, but still enough to knock Ash of his bed once again. Looking at the bedside clock and realising the time, Ash finished getting dressed and ran down to a now furious Misty and Brock. "Please explain why you took so long, me and Brock have been waiting here for over an hour, it's nearly eleven o'clock." Misty interrogated. "Sorry guys," Ash tried to get off the hook with a cheeky smile he knows usually wins Misty over, "After my shower I was still tired and kinda nodded off, Pikachu woke me up though, didn't you Pikachu." Still annoyed with Ash and unaffected by his usually omnipotent smile, Misty replied with a grunt, signalling Ash to just shut up and sit down. After a long and hardy breakfast, everyone went to their rooms to collect their belongings even though they were still staying another night and met outside. Ash was eager to get out of Saffron City and find his next battle, but Brock and Misty wanted to explore the city and more importantly, shop. After a long and frankly fruitful conversation, they neutrally agreed to separate for the day and meeting at a restaurant later in the day, so Ash could at least join in with Misty and Brock to spend some of their hard earned cash from the previous week. Ash headed out of the city and was in open fields within a matter of minutes. After about an hour Ash was starting to get bored, having come across a grand total of zero trainers. "I'm about to give up Pikachu," Ash sighed to his Pokémon, Pikachu agreed with a nod. And just as they were about to call it quits, the boy Ash bumped into appeared. "You never did apologize," the Youngster taunted, "wanna see some skill, I'm guessing you're a trainer." Ash grinned to himself, "how about I apologize if you can beat me," Ash returned. 'Great', Ash thought to himself, 'I've been waiting for ages.'

The Youngster's recalled his Pidgey after it took Pikachu's thunder shock, knocking it clean of its feet. "Persian, GO!" the Youngster yelled, throwing the old, battered Pokéball high into the air, unleashing the cat like Pokémon after a bright red flash. Ash, still looking as confident as ever, sent his Pikachu straight for the Persian. "Pikachu, use thunder shock," Pikachu's red cheeks started to spark and after a matter of seconds, thousands of volts shot towards the Persian, coursing throughout its body, knocking it out.

After a friendly hand shake and congratulations, the Youngster left on his way. "Hey Pikachu, did you see where Misty and Brock went?" The little yellow mouse pointed towards a small hostel near Saffron City, where Ash and his friends were saying the night. Typically, Ash ran off towards the hostel, still hyped from his match with the youngster.

It started to get dark and Ash stopped in front of the looming forest for a quick breather. "You ready to go in Pikachu?" Ash questioned, in return Pikachu nodded and enthusiastically shouted its own name. "No point waiting then." Pikachu jumped on to Ash's shoulder and they both ran into the dark forest. Five minutes into the forest, Ash's jog had slowed to a slow, precautious walk. "I'm kinda regretting this now Pikachu," Ash nervously laughed, trying to reassure the terrified Pikachu. Ash's and Pikachu jumped at a rustling behind them, almost knocking Pikachu of Ash's shoulder. Both Ash and Pikachu stood froze. The rustling revealed a looming dark figure; none of the figures features were visible, but both of them knew it was staring directly at them. As Ash slowly gained control over his body again, he started to back away slowly from the figure, not wanting to take an eye of it. In return, the looming figure matched Ash's steps, except towards him. Ash was whimpering under his breath, thinking this was going to be his last moments on earth. The dark figure came closer and closer, he reached out towards Ash with a long, dark, bony arm.

Unlike Ash, Pikachu wasn't fazed by the looming figure and used a newly learnt move, Thunder. It shot through the figure, making it disperse, the black smoke fading away. Ash still stood froze, Pikachu tugging at the bottom of his jeans, trying to get his attention. What seemed to be eons had passed, Ash slowly came back at the sound of shouting from afar, louder and louder it got, slowly changing from a jumbled mess into actual English. "Ash!" the voice echoed through the now pitch black forest, "where are you?" Ash recognized the voice. He tried calling back to Brock, but his body wouldn't comply, still paralyzed from the shock. Light started to shine through the close and looming foliage, create demonic shadows all around Ash. Rustling. Ash's mind suddenly shot back to his encounter with the black figure, this was too much for Ash and he fell to the ground with a crash.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ash awoke, everything around him was blurry and noises filled his air; chattering, beeping and other incomprehensible sounds. His vision started to focus; Ash was looking up at a white, pristine ceiling. He started to move his head side to side, trying to comprehend his surroundings, make sense of this swirling pool of madness around him. To his right, a figure started to come into focus, muffled noise was coming from the blur. Ash tried to respond to the noise, but he could only manage a weak groan. The groan took all of Ash's energy and the room started to fade out, the noise becoming silence, passing out again.

A new room, this one was dark and the air felt off. Ash opened his eyes, finding himself already sat upright. He was sat on a cold damp chair in a hospital gown. He tried to stand, wanting to explore the room and make sense of this new strange environment, but as he found his wrists and ankles bound to the chair. Fear and panic entered Ash's body, his mind flashing back to when he was kidnapped at the age of seven. "Is anyone there?" Ash cried out, "Why are you doing this? Please let me out?" No answer, Ash found it pointless to try again and waited for his eyes to acclimatise. Ash's eyes started to pick out different silhouettes in the room, another dark, yet empty chair in the corner. What seemed like hours had passed, Ash had started to nod back off until he heard footsteps coming from the other corner. Ash squinted towards the corner and a tall dark figure started slowly towards him. Again, the figure reached out towards Ash and unlike before, Ash had no one to help him. The figure grasped Ash's throat and started to squeeze. Ash screamed out, louder than he ever has before.

The room turned white and Ash was facing the ceiling once more. People crowded around Ash, but he was unsure why. He heard loud, mad, uncontrollable screaming with an equally loud siren accompanying it. Why was that person screaming and where was it coming from, Ash asked himself. More people gathered around him, including Brock. Brock was looking directly at Ash, and Ash back at Brock, he was trying to say something to Ash, but the screaming and siren drowned his voice out. He kept repeating himself, over and over, getting more and more urgent. Ash raised his head and looked down on himself, at least a dozen people were holding Ash's down and a Nurse Joy was using bed straps to stop him from thrashing. Brock's voice was coming into focus, "Stop shouting!" Brock shouted over and over. Ash started to gain control over his body and slowly stopped his thrashing and screaming, allowing his friends and the nurses to release him. Nurse Joy still wasn't going to take any risks and kept Ash strapped to the bed.

After two hours and an injected sedative later, Nurse Joy took the straps of Ash and left Ash on the bed with a psychiatrist for both company and consolidation. "Is there anything you want to tell me and anything you say will be in complete confidentiality," the psychiatrist asked in a typical soft voice. Ash didn't register the psychiatrists question and just stared blankly out of his hospital room's window, trying to recall what set him off earlier. "How are you feeling now?" Ash, again, didn't pay attention. After another three hours, the psychiatrist came close to giving up on the silent Ash, until he quietly uttered a simple sentence that gave her hope. "I remember my nightmare."


End file.
